1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device having a function of a capacitance type touch sensor (contact detecting device) enabling information input by contact of a finger of a user or the like, and a method of manufacturing the display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The contact detecting device is generally a device detecting that a finger of a user, a pen or the like comes into contact with or proximity to a detecting surface.
A contact detecting device referred to as a so-called touch panel is known. The touch panel is formed so as to be superimposed on a display panel, and enables information input as a substitute for ordinary buttons by making various buttons displayed as an image on a display surface. Application of this technology to a small mobile device enables a display and a button arrangement to be shared, and provides great advantages of increasing the size of the screen or saving the space of an operating section and reducing the number of parts.
Thus, the “touch panel” generally refers to a panel-shaped contact detecting device combined with a display device.
However, providing a touch panel on a liquid crystal panel increases the thickness of the whole of the liquid crystal module. Accordingly, a liquid crystal display element provided with a capacitance type touch panel which element has a structure suitable for reduction in thickness has been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-9750 (referred to as Patent Document 1 hereinafter), for example.
A capacitance type touch sensor has driving electrodes and a plurality of detecting electrodes forming a capacitance with each of the plurality of driving electrodes. The driving electrodes may be separated or not separated. When the driving electrodes are separated, the driving electrodes may be disposed in a separation direction orthogonal to the detecting electrodes. In this case, one of the driving electrodes and the detecting electrodes may be referred to as “X-(direction) electrodes,” and the other of the driving electrodes and the detecting electrodes may be referred to as “Y-(direction) electrodes.”
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-129708 (referred to as Patent Document 2 hereinafter), for example, proposes a touch panel structure having non-conducting transparent electrodes between patterns so as to prevent transparent electrodes from being visually perceived when detecting electrodes are patterned.
When a device for non-visualization is provided by a touch panel alone as in Patent Document 2, the patterns of the transparent electrodes cannot be visually perceived to some degree. On the other hand, even when there is some difference in transmittance in each pixel on a liquid crystal side, the difference is a level that presents no problem, and thus a sufficient measure for non-visualization is taken.